Right In The Wrong Direction

The Spring mud has turned to Summer dust but that and an extra 30° F, there is not much progress to report. Working hard and getting dirty, working hard, just not much progress. Ugh!!!

I did get the cabin footing forms placed, rebar bent and tied together and the end result inspected and approved, Then…. I did it again!!!!!. The Inspector said I had lovely forms and rebar put together and they will make for a strong cabin foundation. That is, once I move everything 16 inches to the right. He didn’t even know why but there is a rule that says the cabin walls need to be at least 5’ feet from the well head. I dug into it and found out it is a perfectly good rule. In case a drilling truck needs to come in and do some future work, thats how much clearance they need. They actually would love to have a lot more but that is the minimum. So it’s a good rule that I wish I would have known 2 weeks (or 2 years) earlier.

Over the following two weeks, I pulled out all of the rebar, forms and sewer pipe. Dug out a couple more feet of shale and sand and put everything back together with some much needed help from friends. The distance is now exactly 5 feet now according to the inspector.

With signed approval, I immediately called over to the concrete company to tell them I was ready for my big pour. I guess I wasn’t too shocked with all that is going on when I was informed that there is a worldwide concrete shortage and the wait list is pretty long compared to the usual couple of days turnaround. I have never done a concrete project before and have no idea if the 20 yards, (80,000 pounds and 2 mixer trucks filled to the brim) that google says I need is a lot or not. With the dire warning of delays, I was surprised when they came back with a delivery date at the end of July. That was GREAT!!!! I still had a lot of form bracing to do so that they won’t blow out when the concrete pushes against them. There was even enough time for me to have their Concrete Project Manager stop by and give me any last helpful hints for a quick and easy pour. As usual the project manager was a heavy wet blanket on the effort. He showed up looking like I kicked his puppy.

The road wasn’t good enough (a neighbor on the road had a concrete pour the previous week without issue), there wasn’t enough clearance for his trucks to get back here without getting scratched by the overgrown brush. Unless he was delivering the concrete in a BMW, I didn’t really get the concern. It’s an f’ing concrete mixer! He was also concerned that there wasn’t enough space for his truck to turn around even after I told him about the 2 much longer well trucks and the delivery truck that delivered the aforementioned 20 ft lengths of rebar just weeks ago. He threw up his hands and said the situation was horrible and the delivery was cancelled.

I think I mentioned that there is only one concrete company and plenty of other easier more lucrative jobs around. My only recourse was likened to “Thank You, May I have another”. He left in a huff and I began unproductively, but also with a hint of catharsis,  whining to anyone up here that would listen or at least pretend they were. The consensus is that he just doesn’t want to burn the time on my job when there is much more and easier money to be had working on the log mansion homes going up at a breakneck pace in the development up the road.

After I ran out of whine, I pulled out the chainsaw hedge trimmer and long pole lopper and got to work clearing any trees and brush that could possibly scratch his precious paint. My neighbor was responsible for the road being too wrecked for the heavy mixer. A culvert collapsed and the road rutted out by a lot more than a lot of dump trucks full of fill dirt running on the road. He pulled out the dozer (People up here have the coolest big boy toys) and repaired and smoothed it out.

With all of the roadwork done, I called the Concrete company and got a mid August date. I am not sure if I have been forgiven for my sin of not having an easy pour waiting for them so delivery is still at risk. I am debating whether I will call the PM back. If I do, will he still be angry and forbid it? If I try to work around him and he finds out, will it be worse. If the driver doesn’t like the job, they are allowed to dump the concrete along the way and send me the bill.

My only other option is to get a mixer on a trailer and about a 1000 bags of concrete and do it myself with whatever suckers I can drag into the effort.

One bright spot to this little fiasco is that on the day I was scheduled for a pour, it was sunny, 100 degrees and no humidity. Circumstances unfriendly to man and wet concrete. I have rescheduled for mid August. Hopefully the heat will break by then.

Other than this concrete problem, I made pretty good progress on thinning out the overgrown forest around my property. I was in a hurry to get as much done as I could before this year’s burn ban starts. It is 2 months later this year but I think anymore burning would be pushing my luck. As I wait out the concrete situation, I’ll just keep chopping away at the 2 acre goal the Department Of Natural Resources gave me last Spring. I don’t think I am going to clear that much this year but I am happy with the progress so far.

There is also the condition of the road when wet season returns, A couple of years ago the neighbors and I scoured the second hand sales websites to purchase culverts to carry water away from the road. We found a few that have been gotten almost covered below the weeds and grass ever since. I decided that I should see what it is going to take to get one installed so I can plan out future efforts. Turns out, it’s not so easy. With the tractor and a shovel, it took me a day to dig, set and bury just one section. That’s without hitting any boulders and tree roots that I think I was probably pretty lucky to not hit this time. I am rethinking that effort.

As you long term readers are aware, I have a deep long trench full of trash. Short of a few fits and starts, I have been avoiding the trash trench cleanup or coverup effort. I was originally going to just cover it with loads of fill dirt. It turns out that dirt is really hard to come by, especially getting it delivered all the way back to my property so I have been leaning towards clearing it out. It would probably be better for my property value if I pulled it out rather than bury it anyway. I even had a trash hauling company come out and give me a cost to clear out my trash trench and haul it away. Shaking his head, the owner said there was no way to estimate it. Opened ended financial commitments are not in by budget so when I have free time, I have been bagging, dragging and hauling the trash to the dump. It is slow going and definitely not my favorite chore to take on. But I intend to keep at it.

I can tell summer is rolling by the fact that the sun goes to bed before I do finally.  I have been sleeping in the Wintershed loft, mostly because the bed is better for my back. But the day’s heat collects up there and doesn’t make for a good sleep if any. I bought a little fan to move some air around but its too small to make a difference. I finally moved back up to the trailer in the hopes of getting a breeze. It’s cooler up there but this trailcam image image doesn’t make for a restful sleep.

 

Assuming I don’t end up being mistaken for a Pic-i-nick basket, I’ll let you know how the concrete pour goes in a few weeks.